


i’ll grow you a path to redemption

by reylo_mo (writermo)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Bendemption, Falling In Love, Magic, No Pregnancy, Oneshot, Plants, Potions, Strangers to Lovers, Sweet, Warlock!Kylo, Witch!Rey, Witch/Warlock AU, cottage, sorcery, what else do I tag omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24912208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writermo/pseuds/reylo_mo
Summary: Warlock Kylo Ren seeks a rare flower for his potion to take down Snoke. Herbalist Rey Niima is the only witch skilled enough to grow it.The potion: an elixir to right all wrongs.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 28
Kudos: 100
Collections: A Rey by Any Other Name





	i’ll grow you a path to redemption

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HarpiaHarpyja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarpiaHarpyja/gifts).



> This was written for TWD's House Reysistance A Rey By Any Other Name event, based on this beautiful moodboard by @HarpiaHarpyja. I really struggled with the ficlet word limit given the idea that I went for, but it stuck with me from the minute I saw this amazing moodboard and I knew that I just had to write it. I hope you enjoy!

Rey almost didn't hear the pounding on her cottage door amidst the rage of the ongoing thunderstorm, but she did. When she opened it to find the infamous dark warlock Kylo Ren standing there, completely drenched, she abruptly wished she hadn't. 

The notoriously quiet right-hand man of Alderaan's most wanted wizard Alistair Snoke had to shout to be heard over the pouring rain. "You know who I am."

Rey nodded, swallowing hard. 

"May I come in?"

Rey thought of her cats, her plants, the work that she had put into her little garden and cottage. She thought about what would happen to them if she said no. She wondered where Kylo would hide her body. 

But she also saw that he was still standing a respectful distance away, even though the small awning over her door would have given him respite from the downpour. That he was waiting for her answer. 

She stepped aside to let him in. 

Water sloshed over the floor as he entered her cottage, leaking out of his enormous boots, dripping down from his long dark hair and leather jacket. Rey murmured at him to wait and fetched him the largest towel she had.

"Thank you," he said, his voice low yet somehow lilting. He removed his jacket, but his white T-shirt and jeans were sopping wet too. Rey pointedly kept her gaze elsewhere as he dabbed at his dripping clothes and bent forward to roughly towel his hair. 

He handed it back to her when he was done, the two of them standing awkwardly in the tiny living-slash-kitchen space of her cottage. Rey made the mistake of glancing at the way her visitor's T-shirt clung to his frame, all large muscles and hard ridges, and a shudder escaped her. It seemed excessive that a warlock so magically talented should also have such weaponised strength at his disposal.

Kylo Ren spoke. "Rey Niima," he said softly. "Alderaan's most gifted herbalist. Could coax a green thing alive from the soil of death itself, they say."

Rey's throat tightened.

"I require a service," he continued. "One that can only be performed by a grower of the greatest skill." He paused. "I need you to grow me a dareflower bloom."

Rey responded with a step back in surprise. "A dareflower," she breathed. "They're incredibly rare – I don't have the seed – "

"I do."

She _tried_ not to gape at him. "How?"

He didn't even blink. "It doesn't matter. Can you do it?"

"It requires _constant_ magicking from the moment of germination – _theoretically,_ no-one has found a dareflower seed in an _eternity_ – "

"Rey. Can you do it?"

Rey forced herself to take three deep breaths. To square her shoulders and look this dangerous man in the eye.

"Why do you want it?"

A ghost of a smile played around his lips. "Ever heard the saying, what you don't know can't hurt you?"

"I'm not in your line of _business_ , Ren. I don't play by your rules."

He straightened. "Fair enough," said Kylo. "Thank you for your time, Miss Niima. I was never here."

"Wait!" Her hand shot out and grabbed Kylo's. Rey's mind was whirling – so much that she didn't notice how Kylo stilled at her touch. "You can't risk destroying the seed because some idiot botched the growing. The dareflower is extremely rare, and incredibly precious because – "

She trailed off as realisation struck her. "Because of its one and only use. For the elixir of reparation." She tightened her grip around Kylo's wrist. "Why do you need the elixir of reparation?"

He looked right into her wide hazel eyes with his piercing amber ones. "To take down Alistair Snoke."

***

The elixir of reparation was also known as the brew to right all wrongs. When ingested, it filled the wrongdoer with a permanent and irrepressible need to atone for past misdeeds. But it was only effective when brewed by someone with a close bond to the drinker, one closer even than blood – the bond of trust. 

If Alistair Snoke was to drink the elixir brewed by his right-hand man, he would be compelled to offer retribution to his victims. Comply fully with every effort to bring him to justice. The potion wouldn't truly be able to erase all the hurt Snoke’s dark magic had inflicted, but it would, as Kylo said, do what no-one had been able to do before – take him down. 

But only if Rey was able to successfully grow Kylo's one precious dareflower seed to bloom. 

It was agreed that Kylo would stay with her for the week, and he moved a small bag in from his car once she gave her permission. Rey hadn't been exaggerating about the dareflower needing constant magicking. From the moment she planted the seed in a little pot on her kitchen windowsill, Rey's ordeal began. The plant required her touch, her magic, and her spells every other _minute_ – and would do so for _seven_ days. 

Kylo did what he could to help her, whipping up startlingly put-together meals for her and the cats, passing her the herbs and mixes that she needed, or simply talking to keep her company. 

He made a surprisingly good companion, and Rey soon discovered a lot about him. He liked old books and the smell of parchment. The first magic he wanted to master was levitation, because he liked the feeling of flying. And before he met Snoke, he had been a bright-eyed youth named Ben Solo – the only son of famed dark wizard-chaser Leia Organa and aeronaut Han Solo.

Rey found herself opening up to him in turn. She told him when she decided to dedicate her life to growing plants – when she'd run away from her cruel ward as a young girl and saw that things got better with the right care. She let him poke fun at her tea collection, and waved off his horror that she never drank coffee. She revealed the silly stories behind Bebe and Artoo's names. 

However, as the week and Rey's lack of sleep progressed, just conversation wasn't enough to keep her awake; Kylo started having to cast energy spells on her to keep her conscious.

"Kylo," she said as he stood over her, hands on her shoulders, murmuring the incantation. His hands were warm and he smelled like sandalwood and spice. "How did you get here?"

He knew what she meant. "I was… enamoured by Snoke when I was younger," he said. "I thought he was doing things for the freedom of magic and its study. It didn't take me long to see that wasn't the case."

"But you still stayed."

"Because I had an in too valuable to give up. I've been my mother's only source of information on him for years." The bleak way he said it made her heart twist. "But he was too powerful to dismantle with just information – or simply knifing him in his sleep. I knew one day, if I kept building his trust – I could brew the elixir and put an end to it all."

He let go of her, his spell having been cast awhile ago now. "When Snoke declared me his heir last month, I knew my charade was complete. I waited for the first moment I could get away and drove straight to the best herbalist around. To you."

Rey swallowed. "What's next for you, Kylo? After?"

He looked at her. "I don't know." And she could see that it was the truth. He really didn't know if he could find who he was again. If he could shrug off the pretense of these past years and pick up the pieces of Ben Solo once more. 

She was saved from responding by it being time to cast another growing charm. But as the magic flowed from her fingers and her lips formed the spell, she wished she'd said something to Kylo instead. 

***

At daybreak on the seventh day, Rey jerked out of a catnap in the rickety chair next to her window and gasped. “Kylo,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper, but in an instant he was roused out of his own slumber on the sofa and by her side.

They stared at the one purple flower that had bloomed from its tightly-furled bud, petals lightly veined with trickles of a pale, luminous blue. A surge of shaky relief washed over Rey. This was it. They had done it. 

She had done it. 

She looked at Kylo. "Ready?" she asked softly. 

He nodded. The elixir required the dareflower to be added the instant it was plucked, and not a moment later. Kylo had already begun brewing the potion the day before, a relatively simple mix compared to what Rey had gone through. It was simmering softly in a tiny cauldron, just wanting the final ingredient to be complete.

"Alright," said Rey. She took in a breath and stepped toward the windowsill.

"Rey," said Kylo suddenly. "Wait."

It was hard to read the look he was giving her – just gazing at her earnestly, his face suddenly vulnerable, almost like he was trying to take a snapshot of her in that moment in his mind.

"Thank you," he said. "For everything." 

Her face softened into a smile. "You're welcome, Kylo." 

And then she gritted her teeth, whispered the words of a harvesting spell, and plucked the bloom from its stem.

Rey passed the dareflower quickly to Kylo, who swiftly dropped it into his brew, stirring counter-clockwise while chanting the final spell under his breath. Then he waved a hand over his cauldron, whispered a quick cooling charm, carefully poured its contents into a little vial, corked it – and it was done.

Kylo turned around slowly to look at her, and she saw how clearly the shadows under his eyes stood out in his pale face. She probably looked even worse. "Rey..." he said. "There's a twenty-four hour window for this to be ingested, or it'll all be for nothing."

"Of course," said Rey quietly. "Don't worry about – " she gestured at the mess around them, mitigated only by Kylo cleaning up wherever he could. "I'll take care of it. You should go."

It was several beats before he nodded, moving wordlessly to the door, putting on his leather jacket and grabbing his bag. But when his hand landed on the door handle, Rey stopped him. 

"Kylo, wait," she said. She walked over to him so they were barely an inch apart. "Will you come back here? After – everything?"

She watched his throat bob as he swallowed. "Do you want me to?"

The word left her lips in a whisper. "Yes."

He answered by crushing his mouth over hers, dropping his bag and pulling her body to his in a bruising embrace, all tongue and teeth and desperation, one hand around her neck, one hand in her hair. She kissed him back with answering fervour, trying to use the kiss to tell him the things she couldn't put words to yet, but wanted him to know anyway. In case she never saw him again. 

He pulled away eventually, and things happened very quickly from there. He picked up his bag, she opened the door; he pulled her in for one more kiss, she tugged him close for yet another – and then just like that, he was gone. 

***

It was two months later when Rey heard the knock again. 

Just like the first time she’d opened her door to him, her heart thudded when she saw him standing there. But this time, it wasn’t from fear. It was another feeling entirely.

She’d been following the news of course, almost religiously since the headline "DARK WIZARD ALISTAIR SNOKE TURNS HIMSELF IN" had broken some days after Kylo left. Word got out that Snoke's heir, Kylo Ren, had been instrumental in orchestrating Snoke's surrender. He was said to be fully cooperating with authorities in straightening out the dark wizard’s affairs.

And now here he was.

He looked at her as he stood there, bathed in the soft buttery sunlight of the lazy summer afternoon – a few steps away, still hesitant to come close. Something in his eyes told her that just like that first day, she could turn him away. He’d turn around and he’d never come back. 

But Rey had had plenty of time to think over her odd connection to this man she hardly knew. Like plants that thrived without water or trees that kept their leaves in winter, some things simply defied logic.

Even months later, she could still sense the roots that Kylo had put down in her home during the short time he’d been there – proven right by the fact that he had now made his way back to them. To her.

So she already knew her answer even before he asked the question.

“Come in, Ben,” she said.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was a lot of firsts for me - participating in an event challenge (they're fun!), operating within a word count (I went a bit over but I tried so hard!), writing based on a moodboard, and including even the element of magic (I couldn't expand on much, but maybe next time).
> 
> I hope it turned out okay and that you guys enjoyed the read. As always, comments and kudos if you liked it are much appreciated!
> 
> For any of you who are following my WIP [two halves of a whole](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820517) I must apologise there won't be an update this week, because I was working on this. I'll make it up next week!


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